Introvert vs Extravert
by thehornedserpent
Summary: At the age of sixteen, Star is sent to live with Marco Diaz. They soon discover that the other one is their complete opposite: Star, an outgoing girl who always wears a smile, and Marco, an introverted, miserable boy who doesn't trust anyone. Can Star and Marco find peace with each other despite their differences? ON HIATUS UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE.
1. Chapter 1 - An Unwelcome Visitor

"So, Marco, your father and I have something to talk to you about."

"Yes, Mom?" Marco replied, dully tracing the edge of the cereal bowl with his spoon. He didn't look at her, but rather stared past her at the picture frame on a shelf behind her. In it was a picture from the eighth grade school dance. All six of them had goofy grins: he, Ferg, Alonzo, Jackie, Janna, and Justice. Marco had his arm around Jackie's and Janna's shoulders, and the look on his face was pure enjoyment. Those were the days… the fun times he used to have with his friends. Justice had moved to Wisconsin after that year. Justice, Jackie, and Janna… they used to be called the "J triplets." What had happened to Jackie? It just seemed like she had gotten too cool for all of them. She grew distant from the remaining four in her freshman year. But the truth was, Marco had admired her for a long time. The spring in her step, the way she laughed…. He eventually figured out that meant he _liked_ her. But by that time, she had lost the spring and she never laughed. That was too "uncool." But Marco had been determined anyway. He asked her out in his sophomore year. That was what cut the tie all the way through. That's when Jackie told him she already had a boy that she was interested in pursuing a relationship with. It was the worst feeling in the world. It had been creeping up on him—he had been slowly losing her as she started paying less attention to their middle school group and started hanging around her "cool" friends more. But then he knew for sure. He had lost her to someone else. He just wished he could go back to being thirteen years old. Everything was so much better then. But high school hit, and they all split up. And he got the worst end it all.

And that pretty much lead up to where he was now. A depressed introvert with nobody to turn to.

"So… are you okay with that?"

"Umm… yeah, sure." Marco took a bite of cereal without looking down. Instead, Marco's eyes wandered again to another picture. This one was of just him and Janna. He stared at Janna for a moment, frowning. Janna and Jackie had been such close friends. How would it feel to lose someone like that? Could it possibly be worse than what he felt? Maybe.

"Really?" questioned his father, "I thought you would resist more. Ouch! Oh, alright."

The "ouch" had come from Angie shoving her elbow into Rafael's gut.

"Um… wait, what did I just agree to?"

His mom replied, "We accepted a foreign exchange student. She'll be our house guest for a while.

Marco spit out his milk. "No she won't!"

"Marco, you don't even know her. Give her a chance."

Marco stood. "No! I tried friends, and all they gave me was pain. She is not coming into this household!"

Rafael slammed his fist into the table. "It's not your choice! This is _our_ household and you are _our_ son, so we're going to make the best decision for our household and our son!"

Angie nodded, speaking in a quieter voice: "Marco…you have to open up to people. If you won't on your own, then we will have to force you to. And this girl needs a home. If we refused her, we'd be sending her out to live in the streets"

"I don't ca-are! I'm going up to my room, the one part of this household that is mine and lets me control who comes in."

"Marco, you have to go to school today," Angie protested.

Marco, halfway up the stairs, leaned over the railing. "School's stupid! Everyone thinks it where everyone gets along and has perfect _friendships_ and has fun. The most fun _I'm_ having is finding solutions of quadratic graphs. You're a teacher! Why don't you homeschool me?"

"Marco, I'm a third grade teacher. I can't teach you high school math."

"That's not what's holding you back." There was a pause, with Angie having no answer. "You want me to go to school and for me to magically make perfect friendships so you can go and say 'here's my perfect kid; he's smart and well-behaved and popular and perfect.' News flash: I'm NOT perfect, and I never will be. I'm RUINED! Can't you see that?" He slammed the door closed. He found the picture of him and Jackie that he kept on his nightstand and threw it into the floor. The glass shattered. He then ground it underfoot. "I hate you! I hate you! I HATE YOU!" He then went for one of him, Janna, and another younger girl. For some reason, he couldn't force himself to break it. Janna didn't deserve that after all she had gone through. Losing Jackie, losing that other girl in the picture… it just felt wrong to inflict harm upon her.

His mother walked into the room, Marco still holding the picture of Janna and the picture of Jackie on the floor. "I presume all that was directed toward Jackie?"

"Yeah, not you, Mom. Sorry."

Angie wrapped her arms around her son. "I love you, Marco. I love you no matter how many friends you have, whether you get straight A's or not, whether we get into fights or not, no matter how broken you are."

"Thank you, Mom. I love you, too." They hugged.

After Angie pulled back, she peered at the picture in Marco's hand. "You know, she's just as lost as you are."

Marco thought for a moment. "I'll remember that."

"Okay, now get ready for school. We can worry about Star later."

"Star?"

"That's the name of the exchange student."

"Star? Who names their kid after something in the sky?"

Angie smiled. "You were almost named Sol."

Marco raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yep. I talked your father out of it. It had to be more American, I told him."

Marco nodded. "I'm going to be late."

"All right, go."

Marco rushed to get ready. As he was walking out the front door, Angie mentioned one more thing: "Marco?"

"Yes, Mom?"

"Star's going to be at school today. Show her around and… try to tolerate her."

"Okay."

"Thank you."

He closed the door and started to walk. He kept his head down.

"Hey, stranger!" someone called.

Marco wasn't sure whether the person was talking to him or someone else, but he didn't look up. _If you ignore them, then they won't talk to you. Just don't look up._

Then came another voice. "Hey, Marco boy!" It was Janna. She bumped into him, almost knocking him over. She caught his hand and helped him regain his balance. Marco stared down at their entwined hands. His face grew red and he slipped his hand away. Janna just seemed to have a smug smile on her face.

Sensing an awkward situation, Janna ran ahead, shouting back at Marco, "See you at school!" She dashed into an empty alleyway. Catching her breath, she squealed, "I did it! I just held Marco Diaz's hand!"

Marco finally made it to school. It was two minutes before the bell rang, so he sat in his usual spot in the front of the room (so he could distance himself from his peers) and waited. He scanned the room for any new faces. No… they were all kids who'd been in his class all year.

The bell rang and class started. Mrs. Skullnick started talking about something. Something about triangles… meh. He twiddled with his pencil. When that became boring he started doodling what he thought Star would look like.

"What is the circumcenter? Marco?"

Marco played it off. "Um, the circumcenter is equidistant from each vertice."

"We haven't gotten to that yet, but… yes. It's equidistant from each vertice, and we find it by finding the point of concurrency of the perpendicular bisectors of each—"

Mrs. Skullnick was cut off by a girl kicking the door open with surprisingly good kicking form. Marco would know—he took karate. As could be imagined, the sound of the kick and the door slamming on its hinges created quite the commotion. First Mrs. Skullnick scolding, "Don't kick the doors!"

"Sorry," Star replied in a giggly voice, "hometown habits die hard."

Mrs. Skullnick shrugged it off. "Find a seat."

The girls near the back were in a riot trying to find a seat for her and fighting for the spots closest to Star's new desk. Jackie waved Star over, and she came. She was immediately peppered by questions such as: "Where did you used to live?" "Did they _actually_ kick doors open in your hometown?" "Was it like a tradition, or was it just your kind of thing?" "Do you have a boyfriend?" (The last one was said by one of the handful of boys who had come over.)

And the crazy thing was that she actually seemed to _like_ it. She was trying to answer all their questions and just burst out laughing when they started coming too fast.

Meanwhile, Marco noticed Janna sitting aside from the rest, doing something on her phone. She glanced at the crowd and rolled her eyes.

Mrs. Skullnick struggled to be heard over the other students. "Class! Class! Class!"

Eventually everyone settled down. "If we're all so curious, how about we have Star come up here and introduce herself."

Star walked up to the front. "All right… I'm Star Butterfly. I have these weird heart marks on my cheeks. And I'm pretty sure I'm just a normal kid otherwise." She said it too sweetly, too ironically. Marco knew something was going to happen. Star tapped her chin. "Oh, and one more thing. I'm a magical princess from the dimension of Mewni!" As she said it, she pulled out a wand and zapped Mrs. Skullnick in the belly. Star, snickering, snuck back to her seat before Mrs. Skullnick could catch her. Marco watched in horror as his teacher morphed into a troll. Most of the class laughed, the group around Star laughing the hardest of all.

Mrs. Skullnick clenched her fists in fury. Marco, being the closest to her, became afraid: "Star! Turn her back!"

The initial comedy of the situation was now waning, so Star had no problem with zapping Mrs. Skullnick back to a human. But the teacher's anger had not receded with the horrible looks. "You have been in my class for one day, missy, and you have caused more problems than I have had all year!"

"Don't worry," Jackie muttered, "It's only the third day of school."

Mrs. Skullnick was oblivious to the comment. She continued, "If you give me any more trouble today, I will send you to the principal's office and have a meeting with your parents. Yes, in your _junior year_! Stop acting like a three-year-old!"

"Oh, well I don't have parents."

"You… don't have any parents? A relative, then, or your legal guardian."

"Well, yeah I do, but they're back in Mewni. Along with every one of my relatives."

Mrs. Skullnick's patience was wearing thin. "Then who do you live with?!"

Star shrugged. "I don't know yet."

Instantly, the girls who were around her burst into conversation again. "Hey! Come stay with me!" "Don't go to _her_ house, come to mine!" The boy from earlier smirked devilishly. "Maybe you could stay with me." Star blushed. At this point, Marco finally got a good look at the boy. It was Oskar. Oh, _Dios_ , if Oskar's interested in her, he'll pick her up in a week.

" _Actually_ , I've already accepted an offer."

"From who?"

"Tell us!"

"Well," Star answered, "I'm not sure, but that person was supposed to meet me in this classroom. They know who they are!"

Marco stood. "It's me."

Everyone's conversation stopped. All eyes turned toward him. Marco stood there, trembling. This was really too much. He hated being the center of attention.

Star skipped over to him. "Hey… um-"

"Marco."

"Hey, Marco! Uhhh, you're… a boy. That's not weird at all."

"Whatever. It wasn't my choice anyway. Look, don't give me trouble, okay?"

"Okay!"

Marco let out a breath of frustration at Star's lack of seriousness. He tried to keep his cool as he said, "Star, if you're not going to cooperate, I don't have to do this for you!"

She tapped her chin with her wand. "Well… actually, your parents already accepted, so… yeah, you do."

Marco's face was red with anger. He stormed out of the room, leaving the door swinging back behind him.

Mrs. Skullnick watched the exchange in shock. "I should probably report this to Skeeves." Suddenly, the bell rang, signifying the end of the period. As the students hurriedly packed up and crowded toward the door, the teacher shouted, "You _will_ be tested on this material!"

Marco, meanwhile, stormed into the bathroom. There was no one in there. Good. There was no one to see him flip out. He punched the wall hard. It was tile, so it stung quite a bit.

Now ready to calm himself, he splashed water on his face. He'd learned this as a way to cope with his emotional outbreaks. Soon, he was all right. Whistling, he walked down the hallways to his next class: art. Art wouldn't be too bad; it was a place to express his emotions and not be bothered. Art was his hideout, where he went when he needed to be alone with his thoughts. He didn't have a choice of when to go, but he almost always felt like being alone anyway.

Oskar, who had the same schedule as Marco, walked in, Star trailing him. Star walked over toward him. Marco couldn't suppress a bitter remark: "Looks like you found your own guide. Guess you don't need _me_ anymore."

Star was unfazed by the bitterness. Couldn't she understand? "Well, I don't want to burden you. Plus… Oskar is pretty cute." She giggled.

Star really was tactless, wasn't she? "But… I'll sit with you." Smiling, she sat down next to Marco. Marco was anything but smiling.

"Okay, class," Mrs. Culler announced, "you'll be working on your self-portraits today. Get to work!"

Marco let out an amused grunt. He'd finished that three days ago. He took out a piece of paper and began to draw. He glanced over at Jackie a few times, trying to get her face right. Then Star poked her head over Marco's shoulder, saying, "Hey, whatcha drawing?"

Marco blocked her line of sight with his arm.

"Hey, let me see!" Star protested playfully.

"It's nothing-" he moved his arm as Star poked her head around, "-you should be worried about!"

"Pretty please?"  
"No!" He folded his paper over.

"That's not gonna fool me!" Star snatched the paper away.

"Hey!"

Star opened it up. It was a picture of Marco and Jackie together, Marco on the right, Jackie on the left. Their cheeks were pressed together. Jackie was grinning, and Marco had a blushed and timid look. In the background was large heart enclosing the two. "Ooooh, I see. You have a crush on Jackie!"

"No, I don't!" Marco snatched the paper back, tearing it along the crease. The right side of it took an entirely new form, showing a broken heart in the background and a now depressed-looking Marco. It was interesting how it morphed so quickly because of context. One was suppression of a smile out of embarrassment, but joyful nonetheless, and one was a forced smile out of uniformity, but saddening nonetheless.

Star, of course, saw none of it at first. "What? Did you not like it?"

"No," replied Marco patiently, "I was just finishing the piece." He wasn't sure why he decided to show her, but he did. He brought the pieces together, showing a happy couple, then took them apart, the drawing of Marco seeming to change emotions.

"Ohhhhhhh! But why is um… Jackie still happy?"

Marco replied bitterly, "Just look at her."

The girl in question was with her friends at another table. She laughed at some joke they made, clearly enjoying herself.

"Now look at me. I'm broken; I've been diminished to nothing!"

Star paused, thinking. She snapped her fingers. "Aha! I know how to cheer you up!"

Marco snickered. "I'd like to see you try."

Lunchtime came. He sat down alone and started to eat. It was a nearly mechanical process. Star came over to sit by him, but one look from Marco told Star to go somewhere else. She found a spot at seat across from Jackie, at a table with her, Hope, Dawn, and Faith. **(A/N: That's not from a lack of creativity in names; it's symbolic.)** Oskar quickly joined the group, coming over with bought lunch.

"Sooo… when am I gonna be served food?" Star asked.

Jackie rolled her eyes. _Guess I should have expected this from her. It's the mindset of a princess: she expects people to do everything for her._ "You have to go up and get it yourself."

Oskar had just sat down with a hamburger, and another boy walked past with chicken tenders. Putting two and two together, Star exclaimed, "We get to pick our own?!"

"Um, yeah," replied Jackie.

Star got up and rushed over to the lunch line, which was now nearly empty. It was a good thing, as Star didn't know what waiting in line was. She rushed right up to the food counter where three options were displayed. "Oooooh, hmm, 'fish sticks.' Wonder what that is! Why not?" She put it on her tray along with three chocolate milks and two apple juices, quickly passing by the fruits and vegetables. A lady in front of some weird-looking electronic device asked her for her last name. "Butterfly!" she replied before zooming back to the table. Her mouth watered. "Mmmmmmmmm, this looks so unhealthy!" She gobbled up the fish sticks in seconds flat, using both apple juices to wash it down. She chewed for a few seconds then ran to a nearby trash can, spitting it out. When she returned, she sat down and said incredulously, "What WAS that?"  
Dawn spoke up. "If I'm right, those were… fish sticks."

"Well, yeh," Star tried to stay while holding her tongue out and wiping it off with a napkin. "But why does it tasth tho bad?"

"Do you know what fish are?" asked Faith.

"Umm… oh, those things that swim in the lake, right?"  
"Yeah, basically."

Star put on a disgusted face. "You _eat_ those things?"

The whole table burst out in laughter. It had been building up for a while, and that comment rendered them unable to stifle it any longer.

Across the cafeteria, Marco watched bitterly. _I hate them_. How was he possibly going to live with someone who had messed up his life so much in the first three hours of knowing him? Or was she actually making it better and Marco was just so used to misery that he was resistant to change. No, that definitely wasn't it. He tried to push the thought out of his brain, for some reason scared of it. A whistle blew, signifying the end of lunchtime and the beginning of a recess of sorts where everyone just stood outside and talked or did homework. He got up and left the cafeteria, heading out to the courtyard.

The courtyard was a square shape depressed into the ground. The northern side had a brick roof, simply an extension of the roof of the cafeteria that bordered it. There were brick columns for structural support along this side. The east side, perpendicular to the first one, was lined by a wall about four and a half feet tall. Otherwise, the courtyard was unbounded. In the center of it was a ramada with picnic tables where most of the teens went. Marco found his usual spot-the junction of the wall of the east side and one of the columns of the northern side. It was in the northwestern corner of the whole place. It was quite secluded, as almost everyone stood under the ramada or sat at the picnic tables. Sometimes Marco sat and did homework here, but today he just watched. It was not uncommon for him to do this; he typically did it two or three days out of the week. He always mentally remarked that he got the best view of the action over here, away from everyone else. This was how he saw the world-or at least how he did now. He observed from a distance, and from there learned so much that the ones in on the fun would never pick up. For example… Dawn pulls at her curly red hair whenever she's emotionally distressed. Oskar's eyes dart from side to side when he lies-that is, when his eyes are even visible. Jackie never tells a lie-not even to save feelings. And he had even learned something about Star already: she's careless, acts upon instinct without considering any sort of consequences.

And yet… he still knew next to nothing about Janna. Some basics, but no more. For example, she loved to tease him and break into his things. And every day, she stood in the southeast corner, directly across from him, and watched. They watched the other people, and sometimes they even watched each other. She was a sort of enigma to Marco-and he could drive himself crazy trying to figure her out. There was a piece missing from her, just like Marco. Something made them similar, and Marco wanted to know what it was.

It was really the only thing that made life interesting anymore.

That was when he realized that he and Janna had been staring at each other for too long. He looked away from her, back at the main group of teenagers. He was just in time to see Oskar slyly take Star's hand when she wasn't looking, Star blushing and giggling. Marco's right hand balled into a fist. But… why was he angry? Why was he angry that Star had a boyfriend? Marco shoved his next thought-the answer to his questions-down before it was even conceived.

He looked down at his feet for the rest of the time, afraid to look back and see Star and Oskar kissing or something.

And Janna watched him. She watched him stare at his feet and thought: about him, about herself, about everything between them. There wasn't much between them anymore.

* * *

 **A/N: Yay! Longest chapter I've ever written! I'll admit: I could have ended it better, but I'm not sure how at the moment. We'll dive into Marco and Jackie's breakup in later chapters. Janna's backstory will be covered in the next chapter. Please review with thoughts or criticism. Until next time!**


	2. Chapter 2 - Secrets Revealed

**It's finally here, everyone! After my month-long vacation and holiday hiatus, I'm coming back with this! There aren't many views or reviews on this story, but it got eleven favorites and 10 follows, so I decided it was still a priority. The high-demand Quest for the Broken Star story WILL be updated with chapter 10 soon. I'm pushing for mid-January, but I haven't started it yet, so we'll just have to see. Also, I'll be treating you guys with a Starco fluff scene that was deleted from** _ **The Chosen One.**_ **It will be posted as a new chapter ON THAT STORY. All I have to do is transfer it from longhand into digital text, so it should be up soon!**

 **All right, enough with the never-ending update. (See my profile for further details.) Anyway, we did get one review:**

 _ **PixelGX - that was the intention of a two year gap between the canon start and mine. I feel like all my character personality changes could realistically occur in two year, especially given the circumstances of some flashback scenes (which we're getting a lot of in this chapter). Being able to mold the characters a bit helps me tell the story I want to tell and also provides an interesting perspective. And, admittedly, it's kind of fun to mess with the characters given their frameworks. However, once the personalities are set in stone, I will be sure to keep the characters as true to their new personalities.**_

 **Sorry about that! I promise, I don't usually respond to reviews in paragraphs, but I'm excited about the personality tweaks, as it's the whole basis of the story.**

 **And for those of you who haven't read my other stories, please review with anything from critiques to reactions to funny remarks about the story. Seeing reviews always makes me smile. :)**

 **Now to the story, before I add another 1000 words in author notes!**

 **Beta read by crysky**

* * *

 _Wow. What a day._ Marco had never dreamed that Star would have such a dramatic influence on his life. And now, after thinking it over a bit, maybe it wasn't all bad. Maybe some of her outgoing personality would rub off onto him, or-better yet-she might make friends for him. Because it really was a lonely life he was living. Maybe a change would be welcome. But as far as he could tell, Star was not a pleasant change to his life. Maybe they could have a talk when they got home… what, was he kidding himself? Star would never sit through an emotional conversation, and Marco would get too nervous. Honestly, Marco was dreading getting home. He had had to make up a test, so he had stayed at school late. Star, using a magical GPS, decided to walk home by herself rather than wait. Although, she wasn't by herself the whole way. She walked with Jackie to the latter's house, then walked the remaining block or so alone.

Basically, Marco was without Star, and Star was at Marco's destination. Naturally, he decided to take a while to get home. He took a detour through the park. It was filled with trees and bushes, with a few large clearings here and there. He loved coming here even though he was rarely able to. There was no one around, just trees. Marco could just think and not be interrupted by anyone. He watched a squirrel scurry between trees, eventually disappearing in the underbrush.

Life would be so simple if he were a small animal like that, wouldn't it?

Just collect nuts. Collect nuts, eat, sleep, don't get eaten. No girlfriends, no social problems, no random people coming in and messing with your life.

He found the pond. It was an oval shape and stretched about 50 feet wide and 100 long. Marco stood on the long side, watching the little ducks paddle around in the water. This would be his favorite place in Echo Creek except for the fact that there were usually a few people around. Not today. Nothing stirred. Marco stood there for a long while. He started to think. As he watched the placid water, his thoughts turned to slightly rougher waters-more saline waters. And in those waters, the orange seashell necklace being carried into the endless blue.

* * *

 _Echo Creek High, one year ago_

Marco's hands trembled, but he couldn't turn back. Not now. He had promised himself he would do it today. Why today, you may ask. It was Marco's birthday today. And it would be the best present in the world if Jackie said yes. But if she didn't… oh, no, he shouldn't go there. Just go for it now and deal with it later. Marco was no safe kid! He wouldn't back down!

He forced himself to walk forward. He had scripted it out, so all he had to do was start talking. He walked over to Jackie and pulled her aside. Then he started: "Jackie, we've known each other for a long time, but I want to get to know you better." As Marco looked up at her, he smiled, becoming sure of his decision. "Jackie… will you go out with me?"

Jackie shut her eyes forcefully, covering her face with her hand. "Oh… Marco, I'm sorry. I'm just… I'm not ready for this yet."

Marco stepped back, a confused look on his face. "Not… ready?"

A tear appeared on Jackie's face, something Marco hadn't seen in a very long time-if ever. What had Marco done to make her cry? "It's not you, Marco," Jackie said, wiping the tear away, "It's me. It's just… I can't let you get any closer to me. Because when you get close… never mind." Jackie put a hand on Marco's shoulder. "Marco, this is just me being weird. If I change my mind, I'll let you know, okay?"

She never mentioned it again.

In fact, the next day, the orange seashell necklace Marco had bought her for her eighth birthday was nowhere to be found. That night, Marco saw her toss it into the ocean on his way home. He watched it being carried away, even after Jackie left. That was when he realized that he would never be with Jackie. And to this day, the reasons for it mystified him.

* * *

 _Echo Creek Park, Present Day_

Marco turned away from the pond and started back the way he had come when, suddenly, a column of fire burst out from among the trees.

Marco had always had a sense of protectiveness. This was what drove him through the trees toward the fire. Only smoke remained, the fire all gone. Marco couldn't imagine what could have caused a fire, then have it immediately extinguished. He rushed through the trees, eager to help whoever he found.

All he found was a circle of dark powder and a triangle of more dark powder. And a lighter. And a girl, her back against a tree, crying. There didn't seem to be any danger, so Marco slowly rounded the tree to get a good look at her. It was Janna. It was quite surprising. "Whoa… what happened?"

Janna sniffled. "Just normal… life stuff."

Marco knew that was a lie. "No, this isn't normal of you. You're usually so-"

"That's what I want you to think."

Oh, so this was it. The secret was coming out. He waited for more explanation, but, getting none, prompted her: "So this is how you really feel? Like, every day?"  
"Yes."

Another short answer. These were the riddles that Janna always talked in. This was the only chance he would get. If he pried now, he might get an answer. And he couldn't help her until he knew. "Not to be insensitive, but why?"

"Because…." The words were drowned out by tears.

"Calm… calm down," Marco soothed. Once Janna stopped crying, he said, "If you tell me what it is, maybe I can help."

"It's… it's Steph," she uttered in a miniscule voice.

Marco nodded, his speculations confirmed. "I thought so." He paused for a while. "Look… you just have to learn to move on. Like… like I did with Jackie."

"You never moved on from that."

"That's the truth."

The words spilled out from Janna's mouth: "I can't move on from her, I just can't. It's not too painful at school, but when I go home, every time I see the guest room, every time I see my mother's face, I'm reminded of her and that awful, awful night."

Marco had heard the story. A freak heart attack. Doctors and even scientists baffled. It was something unsolvable with our human minds. Just like Jackie. He may never understand why Jackie rejected him. It was quite the mystery. After that he had given up. Given up on relationships, on girlfriends, and eventually gave up on having close friends. He never expected that anyone would like him that way ever again, or at least not for a long time.

While Marco had been lost in thought, Janna had started to break down again. She choked out words through tears gasps: "I… just… need… someone… there… for me."

Marco's eyes softened. Maybe he could bend his no-socialization policy for one girl. Especially if that girl happened to be the mysterious Janna Ordonia, the only person who interested him now. "I will."

Janna threw herself around Marco and cried into his shoulder. It felt good to have someone open up to him, to be able to help someone with real emotions, not that stupid gossip that made up the entirety of everyone else's conversations.

But with a start, Marco realized that it was a… a hug. Something couples did. Although that freaked him out a bit, he let himself relax and give Janna strength. Minutes later, he realized that he had wrapped his arms around her, too.

After a while, Janna, all calmed down now, spoke up again: "You don't understand, Marco, although I appreciate the attempt."

Marco wanted desperately to understand, to unravel the mystery that made up the flesh of his life. And if Janna needed comfort afterward, then Marco would be eager to give it. "Let it all out."

"On my birthday, when my parents and I were in our rooms, my sister went on a rampage through the living room and kitchen, popping all the balloons, tearing down the streamers, she even smashed my cake! She was just trying to be funny, and I suppose it was a bit, but at the time I was furious. We stuck birthday candles into the smashed cake anyway and continued on with it. I wished my sister dead, even though I didn't mean it. My wish was granted. That night, nothing seemed to have happened to her. She seemed to have suddenly died in her sleep, like people who die of age do. No one knew why, so they labeled it heart failure although there was an obvious lack of evidence. But I knew. And ever since then I've been trying to bring her back to life, but demons don't forgive."

By now, Janna had detached herself from Marco and sat up straight. Marco reached an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, we both have baggage. But we can help each other work through it.

"Yeah." Janna smiled. "That sounds great."

* * *

Marco opened the door only to be met with a disappointed stare from his mother. "Marco, you made her walk home all alone?!"

"She was with Jackie most of the way."

"So you made her walk halfway home all alone," she retorted dryly.

Suddenly, Star appeared. "Hey, Marco, you're back! Hugs!"

As she tried to get her arms around Marco, he squirmed and batted at her hands. "Hey! Get… your grimy little hands… off of me!"

Marco got another look from Mrs. Diaz.

"Aw, Marco, are you hug-shy?" Star said, oblivious.

"Um, well… considering I only met you a few hours ago, yeah."

Star cocked her head, thinking. The events of the day pieced together to form her realization. "Oh, you're not just hug-shy, you're shy-shy!"  
"Um…."

"Don't worry, you asked the right person!" Star pulled Marco uncomfortably close to her. "I'll have you the center of attention in a week!"

Marco found the words sinister, a threat, even though they were intended as help. His legs actually started to tremble and he struggled to find his voice. "Please… let go of my hoodie."

"Okay."

As she did so, Marco dashed up the stairs, but not before shooting her an apologetic look.

She seemed to get it, somehow. A silent message was transmitted: _I'm sorry, it's not you._

Star stood there for a minute. She took a step toward the stairs, but Mrs. Diaz stopped her. "No, Star, leave him be. At least for a while."

Star shrugged. "Okay." A hint of curiosity remained behind her eyes, but she managed to forget it for the moment.

Angie, hoping to get Star's head off the topic, asked, "Are you hungry?"

"Yeah! I'm always ready to eat, as long as it tastes good."

Angie smiled. "I'll prepare something, and it won't disappoint!" The smile turned to a pensive frown as she remembered when Marco had been more like this.

She quickly set to making her dish, a family favorite, while Star plopped down on the couch. With nothing to do, she started to think. _What could have caused Marco to act that way? Maybe that's just how he is. But he didn't seem_ that _bad at school. Maybe something happened._ She was reminded of her constant fights with her mother, Moon. After them she would always lock herself in her room, refusing even to let her dear father, River, come in to console her. Maybe it was like that. And she had one more thought to top it all off: _I'm bored of thinking._ She started fidgeting with her wand, tossing it up and catching it. She watched what Angie was doing. She was piling pieces of triangle-shaped food onto a plate and adding shredded cheese and green, red, and black somethings. She put it into a strange machine that started to turn orange. She watched for several seconds, but, seeing nothing exciting happen after that, returned to flipping her wand. She eventually started turning the carpet in front of her into several animals including a puppy, chicken, lobster, armadillo, and peacock. Funny, those spells were meant to change it into Mewnian animals, but it changed into these similar but novel animals.

Something dinged inside the kitchen. Star quickly turned the animal-now a jackrabbit-back into a carpet. She frowned, realizing that the carpet had a different design. "Oops. Hope Mrs. Diaz doesn't mind." She poked her head into the kitchen only to be nearly run into by Angie carrying a large hot plate of food. Star quickly jumped out of the way.

As Angie made it to the table and set the plate down, she noticed the now-orange carpet. "I appreciate the changes to the carpet, Star. Makes the room feel more lively.

Star grinned widely. She was rarely complimented, only scolded back in Mewni. She felt a sense of being welcome here, unlike with her parents back home. She had a feeling that she was going to like it here very much. Especially if Marco and she managed to work stuff out.

Angie's next comment brought her back: "They're called nachos. Enjoy!"

She wolfed them down in minutes. She hadn't eaten it cleanly-not at all in fact. She wiped her face with a napkin. So sixteen years of learning to be a proper princess had taught her one thing about table manners, even if nothing else. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Diaz!"

"You're welcome, sweetie," she said, smiling. Then she realized how much she had been smiling around Star. How much of that she missed nowadays. Maybe Star was just the change this household needed.

Angie sat down next to Star, saying, "Earth must seem pretty boring to you, being from a magical kingdom and all."

Star thought for a moment. "Not really. For one, they don't have these amazing nacho things! And two, it had my parents."

Angie's eyebrows shot up at that. "What's wrong with your parents?"

"They stifled me. Wouldn't let me do anything on my own. Scolded me anytime I went 'out of the norm," for not discriminating against monsters even though there's no clear definition of what a monster is, and most of them are nice. They forced me to stay with a boyfriend I hated. Saying all this makes them sound awful, but I guess they weren't all that bad. Just no fun and overbearing. That's the life of any princess."

"Well, you don't have to be a stereotypical princess here. We're going to treat you like an ordinary teenage girl."

Star smiled. "You probably never thought I'd hope for that."

Angie nodded hesitantly.

"Yeah. I know my princess stereotypes."

After a silence, a noise came from upstairs, reminding the two of Marco.

"He's been up there for a while. You should probably go talk to him," Angie suggested.

"Okay." Star started to ascend the stairs, but turned back. "Sorry if I ended that weirdly, but… thanks."

"You're welcome, Star."

Star dashed up the stairs toward Marco's room, knocking on the door when she got there.

A voice came from inside the room: "Stay out."

"Marco…"

"Don't."

"Marco, I know I've been a pain." That must have surprised Marco because he didn't retaliate. "You must hate me for coming in unexpectedly and changing your life. But if you work with me, that change can be for the better." There was a pause where Star thought, _Thanks, Mom, for forcing me through that diplomacy program even though I thought I'd never use it._ "I know something happened earlier. Talk to me. I promise I can help."

The door opened slowly, and Star saw Marco's tearstained face. His eyes were red but now dry. Then she looked around the room. _Whoa_ , she thought. One drawer of the dresser was open. The bedsheets were sprawled about the floor. There was a dent in the far wall. And the most surprising thing of all was broken glass, a frame, and a picture of Jackie on the floor. Star's first thought: _He managed to break that on carpet?"_ Her second thought: _Oh, guess I'm not telling Jackie about Marco's crush on her._

"Don't judge," Marco said.

"Too late," returned Star.

A few more moments passed, Star still taking in the room.

"You are going to talk to me about this."

Marco sighed. "What's said in this room stays in this room."

Star stepped inside, trying not to touch anything for fear of further angering Marco. She started with, "I know I seem immature, but I _am_ sixteen. I can handle things with dignity. I'm not going to make you feel bad or anything. I promise."

"Okay, well… I guess I just had kind of a moment of recollection."

"Of what?"

 _If I don't tell her now, she'll find out eventually,_ Marco thought, _someone at school will tell her._ He sighed. "Jackie rejecting me."

"Oh."

"I don't… want to go into it."

"Okay, that's fine… I guess."

After a long, awkward silence, Star opened her mouth to share some of her secrets, but Marco cut her off: "Could you leave me to myself, please?"

"Um," Star chewed her lip uncomfortably, "Yeah, sure, I'll just… leave."

As she walked through the threshold and slammed the door shut behind her, she muttered, "It's not like I have things to get off of _my_ chest but I'm stuck trying to figure out what you won't even tell me! It's not like I'm a human with emotions or anything!"

With a bitter frown, she noticed her wand, with its half-star center, glowing green. "I need to go somewhere where I'm not dangerous." She sighed in exasperation, crossing her arms as she stomped out the door.

Now, that was overreacting. But the truth was, Star was just showing intense gestures of anger to hide another emotion-sadness.

Anyway, she walked out of the house, her wand glowing dangerously. She didn't know exactly where she was going, but she was getting away from all the houses, which was good. Then again, at this point, she wasn't really worried anymore. The wand had stopped glowing, and the anger had turned to a sort of muddy feeling. She came across a small shop with the name **STOP & SLURP **painted on it. It looked friendly, so she went inside. Something dinged when she walked through the door, which made her jump. She took a right and found herself in a section packed with sodas, teas, and… something called a "Slurper," which looked really delicious. Star stared at the multicolored liquid being spun around in the machine like laundry in a dryer. She shrugged then grabbed a cup-it was quite a large one, she noticed-and went for the yellow "Slurper" marked: **LEMONADE**. Not knowing what that was, she shrugged, trying the word curiously: "lee-mo-na-day. Huh."

She wiggled the handle around, finally figuring out that it was to be pushed away from her. She took notice of the customers staring at her like, _This girl is stupid._ A grimace crossed her face.

Once she'd filled her cup, she fumbled with a lid-no, that one was two large. She finally fit a lid onto it and hurried out.

But, no. Behind her, a man behind a counter called, "Where you going with that, young miss? You have to pay for that!"

Star scrunched her face. _There I go, messing up yet again!_ Despite that, she tried to maintain her _regal_ composure-if Star could've said the word aloud, she would've spat it-as she made her way back toward the man (who, at the moment, she wanted anything but to approach). "Oh, dear! Where's my head? I'm so sorry, I had no intention to steal this," she assured. No matter how she hated it, she always defaulted to her mother's training when in a tough social situation.

Using her wand, she zapped up some gold coins (her mother would never approve of magically generating currency, something about inflation, although Star didn't understand what balloons had to do with anything or why it would hurt just this once).

After coming into existence, the pure gold coins floated over to and clattered upon the counter. "Is that enough?" Star asked.

"Oh yes," said the man, greedily scooping the gold toward him, "that was… just enough. Thank you, now be on your way!"

But Star knew from the look of greed on the man's face and the long odds of paying the exact amount that she had far overpaid him. It was too late now, though; he had already pocketed the gold-which, unbeknownst to Star, was nearly a hundred dollars' worth. Star trudged out of the store.

Now outside and leaning against the wall of the place, she sipped her icy drink. Her lips puckered immediately. Sour, but good. She drank some more. She finally started to put it together, recognizing the word "lemon" in "lemonade" and presuming it must be like cornade.

The sunny-colored drink certainly brightened her mood, but it couldn't keep the darkness at bay for long. Desperate, she tried to summon Cloudy to cheer her up, but green magic sprang forth, instead generating a rain cloud above her head that followed her wherever she went.

Dripping wet, she turned around, facing the wall and bracing her arms against it, hanging her head. "I just want to be… normal…." Then came the unsaid thought: _Maybe Marco would like me better that way._ That was one she pushed down. And it kept threatening to resurface.

Behind her, a cold, mocking voice spoke: "But you never will."

Without even turning, Star could see in her mind the awful grin and the filled-in yellow-green eyes of her nemesis.

Hoping to catch him off guard, she snapped her arm back, firing a spell blindly.

The nemesis parried the spell, which he'd been expecting, easily. Considering it was a Silent Spell (a spell that doesn't require any verbal command), it was weak and could be parried with a wand using minimal effort.

"Rotten corn," Star cursed.

"Face me like a real princess," her enemy sneered.

Of course, he meant not for her to fight him, as she had no choice in that, but rather to look at him. He knew that brought her pain.

Star turned to face him. "Toffee," she stated coldly.

The figure in front of her was not, in fact, that of Toffee, but it would be a lie to call him Ludo. A painful one.

"My name is Ludo, and you should call me so."

"You'll never be who Ludo was to me."

See, Star and Ludo had been enemies, but by splitting the wand between them, they had eventually come to good terms with each other, even becoming something like friends. Well, princesses don't make many friends, so Ludo was her only one.

Then Toffee, that monster, he took Ludo as a host, controlled his body from inside him, in essence killed him.

And he chose Ludo for a reason, she knew, because that devious Toffee always had a reason for everything he did. Perhaps it was for magical abilities, perhaps it was to disturb Star. Knowing how cold the lizard was, the latter conclusion was the more likely.

Star longed to see Ludo's friendly black eyes again, unlike the ominous glowing ones he now always had. Alas, her wish would never come true unless Toffee was killed, in which case Ludo would likely die with him. So she regarded Ludo as dead; that helped her move on.

Hearing his name was jarring and hurt. Of course, Toffee always used that to his advantage.

"That Ludo was a worthless wannabe. _I_ will be a powerful influence on the world, _I_ will be considered a force to be reckoned with by the most powerful beings in the world."

"You're sick," Star retorted. The worst part was that he spoke not with the sophisticated vocabulary and careful speech of Toffee, but with the diction of Ludo. She could almost imagine Ludo saying that of his own free will back when they were enemies. To be honest, those days were better than these days, with all the stress and paranoia the latter brought.

The difference was: Ludo had wanted her wand, but would never hurt her intentionally. Toffee, however, would stop at nothing to reach his goals-and even those were shrouded by mystery. Toffee was always a step ahead, but it was impossible to tell in what direction. Toffee wasn't just an enemy, he was an evil mastermind. And Star was his target.

While discussing Toffee extensively, all those with him were forgotten. There were nearly a dozen of his henchmen, ranging from giant flies to giant lobsters to giant-you get the point. Each was more menacing than the last.

Now why such a crew to fight one person? The answer becomes clear when you know that Star, as of last year, officially had the most powerful light magic of any Mewnian to ever live. That excluded Eclipsa, of course, since she used dark magic, and Ludo for the same reason.

The fight began.

"Super Monkey Explosion!" Star shouted, waving her wand in a horizontal arc. Tree saplings burst from the asphalt on each side of her enemies, six in a row on one side and six on the other. Monkeys appeared in the trees nearest her and swung through the trees, one periodically breaking off to leap onto a monster's face, where they promptly exploded. The attack brought three monsters to the floor and sent several others reeling.

"Super Banana Beam!" Star followed up, making another horizontal arc, this time in a counterclockwise direction. A curving beam of light seared all in its path except for Toffee/Ludo, who muttered a _Sheildica_ spell.

"Charge her!" A lion with human legs shouted.

Most of the remaining fighters assaulted Star. She struggled to hold them off with an _Inguardia_ spell. "Deafening Firecracker Blast!" Star panickedly yelled.

An explosion of white smoke obscured the monster's vision and left their ears (assuming they had any) ringing.

It gave Star just enough time to wave her wand in the shape of a runic letter while shouting, "Sword!"

She spun, cutting a monster's wooden spear in half just before it pierced the skin on her back. She parried another thrust and caught a blade. Seeing an incoming strike, she flicked her sword to the side, disarming the previous opponent and facing the new one. He held a dagger, with which he struck and was met by a parry strong enough to send the weapon flying out of his hand. Star then turned to a Medusa-like creature with a gelatinous purple body and vibrant yellow snakes for hair. Star decapitated three of them as they struck at her. She proceeded to give the monster a nice haircut, then slapped her aside with the flat of the blade. Two rather humanlike monsters-dwarves or trolls, perhaps, both punched at her. She caught one fist and blocked the other, once again utilizing the flat side of her sword. She grasped the former fist tightly and, using all her strength, hurled him toward his brawler companion. They crashed into each other. A skeleton came from behind her, swinging a broadsword. (Who in their right mind would swarm someone holding a broadsword? He must have struck down one or two of his own already.) He swung it high. Star ducked it, narrowly avoiding decapitation, and sliced at his legs, separating his femurs from his patellas. Having no legs, the skeleton collapsed. That was it. The last one. For now.

Now, that wasn't a dozen, but some of the monsters (including the fly and lobster) had held back from the charge and now fled.

The only one left was Toffee/Ludo. They stared each other down, but Star broke the gaze, quickly admiring her sword before she would have to return it to a wand.

It was rose-gold colored metal with dark blue engravings. They were not understandable, but Star knew that they spelled, " _The Monarch"_ in Old Mewnian hieroglyphs. _The Monarch_ , the name of the sword and wand, referenced not only every of its owners' occupation, but also their surname. The hilt was wrapped in black leather and had a round ball on the end, which discouraged the sword from slipping. The blade itself was only three feet long and was extremely lightweight. It weighed not much more than itself in wand form. It was a pretty cool blade, to say the least.

Star whirled it around her head until it returned to a wand. She knew a magic battle was imminent.

Ludo smirked. "Prepare to get-" he was cut short by Star's next spell, which he dodged. He then shouted _Shieldica Dura_ to block her next spell. Star started to rain spells down on him, trying to break his shield, this one stronger than his previous with the extra command and effort.

But as she did so, Ludo charged up a teleportation spell. In a flash, he disappeared. The next moment, he appeared right in front of Star's face and slashed her with his right claw. Star reeled back, tripping and falling to her back. Her wand fell from her hand and spun away. Three long scratch marks bled on her face. The blood ran through her right cheek mark. A bleeding heart. How interesting.

Star cowered beneath Ludo, his wand raised and with a mad grin. Green magic swirled around the wand. This was no small spell he was casting. It could be fatal.

Suddenly, Ludo tumbled over her as if struck by a large amount of force. Behind the place Ludo had been stood Oskar Greason, holding a battered keytar with which he had hit Ludo.

Star stared at him in shock for a brief second. "Thanks," she said. She then proceeded to grab her wand and muttering, "They seem deep, probably need stitches." She then started to magically sew the wound together, wincing every time the needle, floating around to do the job, stabbed through her skin. Finally, the stitching was done. Star started to talk to herself again. "Should heal up in a few hours if I concentrate. Hopefully no scar. If so, I guess I can cover it with makeup."

There was silence as Oskar stared at Star, waiting. He eventually grunted and started to walk away, angry that she'd ignored him. Then Star sat up straight and blinked. "Oh, sorry, Oskar. Had to set in the healing magic. But thank you, really."

He blushed. "Oh, it was… it was nothing."

"Oskar, you freaking just save my life! I don't take that lightly."

"All I did was hit a guy with my keytar." He looked down at the ruined keytar, an orange one with a red lightning bolt, with a flash of disappointment. Star saw it.

"Hey, let me take that back home. I might be able to fix it with magic."

"Don't bother. I've got like thirty of these."

"It's the least I could do." Oskar reluctantly passed it over. "And you know what," Star continued, "is there anything else you want?"

"Yeah… there is, actually."

Star was confused by his sudden switch from refusal to requesting, but she decided to go with it. "What is it?"

Oskar sat down next to her. "I want to know more about you."

Star smiled. "You'd be the first," she said with a fake laugh that died awkwardly.

"You have a story to tell, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do. I don't want to burden you-"

"Tell me."

Star smiled at his insistence. It was odd, but it almost felt good to not have her requests abided by. Being a princess, she usually got her every whim (except for the things that actually mattered like monster equality, wand and dimensional scissor privileges, etc.) Oskar was pretty bold, and Star liked that. She brushed a strand of hair out of her face and started.

"Well, like I said earlier, I'm a magical princess from another dimension. Also, I have an evil mastermind embodying my friend and pursuing me with the intent of murdering me and my family so that he can take the throne. Or something like that. No one really knows his true intentions."

"That's… awful."

"Well, that's the summary."

Oskar tried to focus on something a bit more happy. "Well, you're… amazing at your magic. And where the heck did you learn to fight with a sword?!"

The admiration in his voice was clear, and it made Star grin. "Yeah. I used to have magical training, but then at fifteen my abilities of light magic surpassed those of any being ever known to Mewni. There was no one to train me because I was better than anyone who tried to teach me. By law, I was required to be trained, so the knights trained me in swordplay. Since the sword I used was actually my wand, my parents figured it counted as magical training."

"Tell me about them."

"Who?"

"Your parents."

"Oh, well… my dad's pretty cool, I guess. He's not afraid to have fun. He'll take me camping for the day-under the guise of an important meeting, of course-and he hangs out with me by the fire in his loincloth, and we hunt giant salamanders. " She started to smile as she talked about him. "I know he really loves , most of the time he just acts kingly and such."

Oskar didn't even try to imagine Star and her dad, wearing a loincloth, hunting giant salamanders. Instead he moved on. "What about your mom?" he asked tentatively.

Her grin dropped instantly. "Well, I mean…" she sighed "…she always acts so royally, and honestly, I think she's a bit stuck-up. She's so obsessed with making me a 'perfect princess.' She even tried sabotaging my training to keep me from becoming too powerful and reckless. Even though she couldn't work around that, she absolutely forbids me to use magic any other time. She also doesn't let me use my dimensional scissors to cross into other dimensions. She didn't even let me use my powers when the castle was attacked. I disregarded her and ended up saving her ungrateful life. But, you know, she can't be that bad, I guess. I know there's people out there without a mother at all, and I can't possibly say I have it worse than them. Truth be told, the things she was so insistent about teaching me have actually helped a bit. I just kind of wish she'd recognize me as a strong individual with my own will."

"Yeah, I get it. Parents can be overprotective and overassertive. I wrote a song about that once."

Silence ensued.

"Okay, now tell me something about _your_ self," Star prompted.

"Man, my life is so boring compared to yours."

"I can't admit that I hate it, but even though my life's exciting, it's awfully… troubling."

"Yeah, true," Oskar agreed. "Well, I guess the most interesting thing about me is that I'm a keytarist. So I play that thing." He pointed to the keytar that Star now held in her lap. "I write my own songs, too. They used to be stupid, like that one I mentioned about parents being overassertive, but as I've gotten older, they've gotten more… heartfelt."

"Do you take lessons or something?"

"Well, no. If I'm honest with myself, I don't play it very well. If I really try I can sometimes squeak out a decent tune but usually I don't try."

Star snapped her fingers as if just thinking of something. "Okay, I know what I want you to tell me: how did you get into keytaring?"

"Well… I was actually around ten or eleven…"

* * *

 _Los Angeles, five years ago_

Eleven-year-old Oskar Greason stared in awe at all the flashing lights around him. He wore a white shirt marked with a _Rolling Rocks_ logo, blue jeans, and black sneakers. He wore braces in his mouth, and his black bangs piled over on the right side of his face, all but obscuring his right eye, but leaving his left eye with a perfect view of the spectacle before him. He watched the intense red colors during the chorus of the loud rock song which soon faded to shades of purple and blue during a slower part. In case it wasn't yet clear, Oskar's parents had taken him to a Rolling Rocks concert. The band was famous for their rock songs, and Oskar had fallen in love with them the first time he had heard one.

Something, or rather someone, else caught Oskar's eye now. He pushed himself up on the balcony's banister to see him better. His gaze was locked on a certain band member, the one who held an instrument that Oskar would later learn was called a keytar. Oskar forgot about the lights, about the person singing, and even forgot about the words of the song as he watched the keytarist. Despite all his parents' scoldings of, "I meant to raise a good man of the workforce, not a street musician" and such as that, he thought to himself, _I want to be like him when I grow up._

And that's where Oskar got his signature kerchief tied around the neck; the keytarist at the concert had been wearing one. Ever since then, he had worn a kerchief the same way as the keytarist to remember the day and his aspirations to be a musician.

* * *

 _Outside Stop & Slurp in Echo Creek, Present Day_

Oskar looked down at his kerchief. "So yeah, that's why I have this thing. I'm big on mementos and stuff."

"Yeah," Star said genuinely, "I think it's really cool that you've hung onto keytaring for so long." Then she joked, "And now look at you! The best keytarist at Echo Creek High!"

"The only one, I'm pretty sure."

"That would make you the best." She let out a small laugh.

Her laugh was infectious, and quickly it caught Oskar, too.

"You know," Oskar said when the chuckles died, "you're the only one who's ever cared enough to ask about me."

"Yeah, same."

They stared at each other for an awkwardly long period of time, but neither felt awkward about it. They mostly focused on the other's eyes. In Star's case, she stared into his left eye, mostly, since the majority of other one was covered up; his hair was just as it had been at the concert five years ago. After a few seconds, she reached out and lifted a few locks of Oskar's hair and brushed them to the side to reveal both eyes. They were an amazing sea green color that you could lose yourself in easily. Highlights danced about his eyes as the sun glinted off of them. And behind those eyes was compassion, hope, and genuineness. And maybe even a little affection? It was hard to tell.

Eventually, Oskar stood up. "Nice talking to you," he said.

"You, too."

They both smiled at each other one last time before Oskar turned and left. As he walked home, he had a new passionate idea for a song.

* * *

 **A/N: So we have some clear Janco and Ostar building. (Both are very underrated pairs, in my opinion.) Admittedly, I changed Janna a bit more than what would be ideal, but she had to for the story to work. Although, guilt can change a person a lot, so maybe it makes sense. Also, I like the path I'm taking with Oskar. I think he has potential as a character, and I'm excited to try to grow his character from his canon version (basically a character who shows up when it's convenient to the plot, and the rest of the time he's forgotten) into something much richer.**

 **And I'm going to start a new thing: At the end of each chapter I'll have a teaser in the form of the title of the next chapter. Chapter 3 is an interesting one! It's called "First Date." Start speculating now!**

 **That's it for now! I have a lot on my agenda right now, so I might not see you again on this story until early March. Meanwhile, check out my other stories! (Which I'll be updating.)**

 _ **Edit 1/23/18: I put this up on QFTBS, so I decided to put it up here. I'm not quite sure what each chapter will yield or how many there will be, but I can work out a schedule. I'll include the next five chapters, since I'm pretty sure we'll get more than that.**_

 _ **Chapter 3 - March (There is soooo much going on February, such as Voice of a Star, The Fault in our Star 5, and QFTBS 11, all of which I promised by February or just later. I don't have much support on this story yet, so unfortunately it will have low priority for February. So expect mid to late March.)**_

 _ **Chapter 4 - April-May (Once again, this story is on low priority. Additionally, I have no idea what exactly chapter 4 will be about, so that will definitely slow me down.)**_

 _ **Chapter 5 - May-June**_

 _ **Chapter 6 - June (My writing will speed up a lot since I get off of school here.)**_

 _ **Chapter 7 - June-July**_

 _ **See profile for more details.**_

 _ **Please note that any support on this project (reviews, PM's, etc.) might get you chapters earlier. So if you're a big fan of this story, make sure you tell me so I can try to get it out to you faster! :) Until next time!**_


	3. Introvert vs Extravert on Hiatus

**Hey, everyone! Update chapter.**

 **So... you may have seen the hiatus notice I added the the description a week or so ago. Let me explain.**

 **I currently have a good 15 favs and 16 follows on this story, which I am greatly appreciative of all of these. I sincerely apologize to let you all down. But let's not kid ourselves. I haven't come around to updating this for over three months, I've barely even been able to start it. My other stories are simply taking this story over in importance. I keep delaying this story because followers of my other stories are so eager for the next chapter. The problem here is that, even with my 15/16 foll./favs, I've only had two reviews. I don't even know what you guys think about the story. I'm not getting any suggestions. No one has even told me that they're anticipating the next chapter.**

 **I still have some interest in pursuing this project, but I simply don't feel that it's working out at the moment. The long-chapter style is taxing, and it's hard to keep up without ideas. That's the other thing: I have no idea where this story is even going. Without a clear direction, I feel like I'm just rambling.**

 **Quest for the Broken Star, The Fault in Our Star (oneshot collection), and A New Beginning (PJO fandom) will all continue to be updated. TFIOS has had a long delay, but it's because the one-shots I wrote for it ended up being published as a separate two-shot. So excuse the gap! Just writing all this brings me to my next point. I honestly think I've bitten off more than I can chew. Writing for four projects (QFTBS, TFIOS, ANB, and IvE) all at the same time doesn't allow me to provide reasonable updates, especially with my personal schedule.**

 **I probably will come back to this story, but it will be on hiatus for an undetermined amount of time. It will probably restart around June, when I'll finish QFTBS. At that point, I'll be able to handle ANB, this, and TFIOS. However, if I start anything new, that might throw a wrench in things. As soon as I determine what I'm going to do with this story, I will post a status update.**

 **If you want this story to return, I need your help! Please review or PM me with your thoughts. If you feel sad that this is on hiatus, I need you to tell me so that I know! If you don't know where to start, I need this questions answered:**

 ** _Would you rather that I continue with the long-ish chapters (e.g. Chapter 1 was 3939 words and Chapter 2 was 7533 words) or should I do shorter chapters (1000-2000 words)?_**

 ** _Would you like this story better without the Janco and Ostar? Should I eliminate it early on? The intention was to have Janco and Ostar throughout the majority of the fic, with Marco and Star coming together despite their differences and affiliations. But, if my ships aren't sailing, then I'll abandon ship._**

 ** _Do you think the cast should end up exploring dimensions, or should I leave it as more of a High School AU? The plan is to include a few connections to Mewni and a few magic problems, but have the story centered around the emotions of the characters rather than action. What do you think?_**

 **And the biggest question:**

 _ **DO YOU WANT THIS STORY CONTINUED AS EARLY AS POSSIBLE?**_

 **While you wait for this story to return, I suggest you check out my story _The Chosen One_ (Complete) and its sequel _Quest for the Broken Star_ (In progress). **

**I am sincerely sorry guys! I'm not doing this to be selfish-I just think more people would be happy if I focused my efforts toward other projects. But if that's not the case then please tell me!**

 ** _-M &BFDIB_ **


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